Hillel Greenstein et al. vs. Council of Unit Owners of AvalonCourt Six Condominium, Inc. has been decided and the six clients seemly have won a decision to hold a board members personally liable for the specials assessments that his six clients don't want to share. This ruling is a major set back in many ways to Common Interest Communities "CIC" The attorney, Raymond D. Burke, is on record saying that he has in his own words.
"often warned condominium councils about the consequences of failing to take timely legal action to protect the unit owners when there is evidence of construction defects in the common elements."
Well! I have been involved with CIC since 1988 and I don't recall once seeing Attorney Burke talking about that happens to communities that are given no help from the state, county or city government in their efforts to get developers to live up to their contracts, obligation and I would say moral responsibilities; however, I know the crowd where talking about about; so I'll save the lecture.
In this case a Condominium board is being help responsible to the do what inspectors, permitting offices and the government on all levels has been backing out of ~ Ensuring that the community is livable.
The vener that this subject is being plastered over with is nothing but that -vener and these board members are now being held to account.
These communities often find themselves fighting with the developers by the time the 1st resident moves in and the developer is still in control of the meetings, voting and money. And, all to often these developers leave the community with no money, a completely unworkable budget and often don't hold a transition meeting to let the community know what is even happening. And this group of homeowners have to be do what......run a community as a professional board right out of the gate.
Meanwhile Maryland politicians are right there with the developers sucking up all those contributions and screwing the people out of any representations.
If you have tried to get a meeting with any Maryland offices about the issues facing these boards you know that Maryland officials want nothing to do with CIC's We have tried to get several meeting with Albert Wynn's office for some communities in Prince Georges, MD and the staffer refused to set one up and said that each owner had to come in on their own. This is not an isolated issues with him as not one Maryland state of federal public servent has done ONE THING for CICs.
The really sorry part about this is that many CIC are handicapped because Maryland refuses to enforce it's Condo ACT and to the extent that it has a HOA act it is pretty much a hollow shell of protecting, considering there is no financial disclosure in HOA in Maryland.
Where is this attorney on the face that banks, Fannie, Freddy, FHA, HUD and the VA aren't paying assessments, making reserve funds contributions and forget about special assessments. In our office we get calls every week by someone that just moved into a CIC in Maryland and they have no documents, financial statement or even clue as to who's even on their association board.
Now the really stupid part about this is that these six owners have sued themselves and they will have to share in the cost of this as there is no president what so ever that says that they are excluded from any special assessment or legal action that impacts the whole community. I'll guess they don't realizes that the insurance company that was covering the community will more then likely be dropping their community from coverage when reconstruction is happening in a condominium.
So who is going to cover this community that this Attorney and his clients are now forcing something
So who is going to cover this community that this Attorney and his clients are now forcing something
So, Great news all around another attorney got paid and the community gets the bill.
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